Claret Pondhawk at Frontera, 8/30/10

With everyone and their dog finding neat stuff arond the RGV, like Bar-sided Darner, I headed over to Frontera to try my luck. No Bar-sided but I found some good bugs. This Claret Pondhawk is a first for Frontera.



Here is my first Amazon Darner.



As I was walking along the east ditch this Turquoise-tipped Darner flew in and hung up right in front of me.



Common Green Darner has been abundant in the Valley lately. I finally got a good pic of a male.

Frontera Audubon Thicket, 8/30/10

It was hot and muggy this morning at Frontera Audubon Thicket in Weslaco. A few warblers are starting to trickle through. Canada Warbler is one of the last to pass through in the spring and one of the first back in the fall.



Black-bellied Whistling-Duck 8
Plain Chachalaca 10
Green Heron 1
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron 4
White-winged Dove 50
Mourning Dove 3
Inca Dove 2
White-tipped Dove 4
Chimney Swift 5
Buff-bellied Hummingbird 4
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 2
Golden-fronted Woodpecker 6
Ladder-backed Woodpecker 1
Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet 1
Alder Flycatcher 1
Brown-crested Flycatcher 3
Great Kiskadee 3
Couch's Kingbird 1
White-eyed Vireo 3
Bank Swallow 5
Barn Swallow 5
Cliff Swallow 1
Black-crested Titmouse 3
Carolina Wren 4
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
Long-billed Thrasher 1
European Starling 1
Yellow Warbler 3
Mourning Warbler 1
Canada Warbler 1
Yellow-breasted Chat 4
Olive Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 1
Dickcissel 1
Orchard Oriole 5
Baltimore Oriole 1
House Sparrow 1


Other than a Northern Beardless Tyrannulet by the entace gate to the Thicket there was little noteworthy around. Bugs on the otherhad are doing quite nicely. Red-boredered Pixies are showing by the water feature and near the entrace gate. Not a great pic.



Zebra Heliconians are starting to pop up. Maybe they will bring some of their exotic cousins up from Mexico this fall.

Yellow-green Vireo at Canon road, 8-4-10

With many of the good Valley birding sites still underwater because of Hurricane Alex, this morning I decided to head over to Canon Road in SW Cameron County. Actually my goal was to look for darners but I was birding all the time also. A couple of Yellow-billed Cuckoos were raising quite a ruckus. As I checked them out, a scruffy Yellow-green Vireo responding to my pygmy owl tooting. There have been few reports of them this summer.





Here's one of the upset Yellow-billed Cuckoos.







I kept count of calling Tropical Kingbird as I walked and drove up Canon Road and across the cane field and then back south along the irrigation ditch west of Canon Road. I had a personal one day high of sixteen Tropical Kingbirds. Years ago the electrical substation on Canon Road was "the" place to see them in the RGV. Now there seems to be more than ever of them. But I didn't get any pics of them. So here's a Painted Bunting.



Black-bellied Whistling-Duck 2
Great Blue Heron 1
Cattle Egret 1
Turkey Vulture 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 1
White-winged Dove 120
Mourning Dove 15
Common Ground-Dove 12
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 10
Groove-billed Ani 6
Golden-fronted Woodpecker 3
Brown-crested Flycatcher 3
Great Kiskadee 3
Tropical Kingbird 16
Couch's Kingbird 5
Tropical/Couch's Kingbird 8
White-eyed Vireo 4
Yellow-green Vireo 1
Green Jay 1
Purple Martin 3
Bank Swallow 20
Black-crested Titmouse 3
Carolina Wren 1
Northern Mockingbird 2
Long-billed Thrasher 1
Olive Sparrow 10
Northern Cardinal 1
Painted Bunting 1
Red-winged Blackbird 2
Great-tailed Grackle 4
Bronzed Cowbird 10
Lesser Goldfinch 1
House Sparrow 1